[medinism]

Below a few nuggets from what we have observed at GroupTalent: 1- Hire a freelancer based on work performed not on CV. Not only we do this by allowing our teams or single devs creating portfolios (which is privileged information displayed only to interested employers) but also by asking them to show us the code or design they are most proud of. 2- Have them come up with an overall plan for the project but commit to only the first sprint. Creating the overall plan for any project will allow you to see how the dev thinks about solving the problem while paying only for the first sprint will limit your risk and allows you to see a bit of his work at the time. 3- Limit the sprints to 1 week at most - and make sure at least a feature is developed in the sprint. Short sprints will help you a- prevent cost overruns, b- cap your risk of working with a bad apple and c- allow you to see features developed early on. 4- Try to manage the whole thing through github. Great programmers hate to add additional layers of estimation, communication, tracking, etc. yet you as a project owner need insight into the work. Make sure you agree to some schedule of commits with the dev so that you get to see progress along the way.

Feel free to ping us at grouptalent.com if any additional questions. otherwise - happy building!